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Sometime ago I interviewed for a big and well known MNC … I thought that the discussions went pretty well but after a few days got a callback but this time for a different group, that is, restart of the process 😦 . After some days another call and same story. “The last discussion went pretty well but unfortunately we could not hire you since we got an internal candidate. It is our company policy to give priority to internal candidates.”

After a few such good interviews but bad experiences I asked the HR representative for a frank opinion about whether I had a fair shot at the job or was I making up for numbers ( do they have a target of ‘n’ interviewees per position) . The answer was an expected ” we have fair hiring practices ” etc. But I didn’t get anymore calls.

Why do people do such things? Why force a candidate to take a day off to interview when you know beforehand that you are fulfilling some shortsighted HR policy.

I was asked by a certain interviewer to write a “tool”. This exercise was to check my coding/design skills as an interviewee. This is par for the course for senior programming jobs. But the shocker came when the interviewer said “in our day to day work, we use many such tools that are written by interviewees; what I mean to say is that I need a production quality tool”. Duh! Is it even legal? What about morals? ethics?? Needless to say that my interest in the job nosedived with that statement and I decided that it is not my cup of tea to work for such a team.

Would you do this if you are the interviewer? What about if you are the interviewee? Let me know – leave a comment below.

Have you attended any interview? How have you felt? Tense? Scared?? Anxious??? Timid???? Not our Vaishali.

Vaishali is all decked up in her favorite pink frock and is accompanied by her parents to the very first interview of her life. The school selected by her parents has called Vaishali for an interview to adjudge if she is capable of starting school at the ripe old age of three! Most other children are terrified, nervous, anxious; but not our Vaishali. She enters the room with a bright smile and a loud “Good Morning”! The first thing she notices is the ice-creams stacked up with an intention of handing over one to every exiting interviewee. Vaishali first demanded “ನನಗೆ ಮೊದಲು ಐಸ್-ಕ್ರೀಂ ಕೊಡಿ ಆಮೇಲೆ ನಿಮ್ಮ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗಳಿಗೆ ಉತ್ತರ ಕೊಡ್ತೀನಿ ” (First give me ice-cream only then I will answer your questions). Ofcourse, after this her interview was a mere formality and to the relief of her parents she secured admission in the school of their choice.